editing

Using a wide aperture to throw foregrounds and backgrounds drastically out of focus to highlight a sharp subject—or just part of a sharp subject—is a common technique. It’s called selective focus, and Karena Goldfinch of Melbourne, Australia, used it for this lovely toned floral study of a columbine blossom.But as she can attest, throwing a background into a creamy state of defocus is only half the selective-focus battle. For the picture at left, Goldfinch paid just as much attention to the blurred background as she did the sharp subject.

 Benetton, purveyor of rather inoffensive, if not overpriced clothes, sure has a handle on how to get people to pay attention to their ads, and it has nothing to do with showing any of the items they sell.

Photographers have lots of tricks for dealing with clutter and other unwanted picture elements. You can, for example, set a large aperture to defocus the fore- or background. Or, by brightly lighting a foreground subject, you can set exposures to darken background mess until it essentially disappears.